“In fact, writing about his various love affairs and the events that caused him pain has always helped Goethe to escape the influence of those events.”
Goethe, the father of the book that we all once rushed to read, “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” was born on August 28, 1749 in Frankfurt. Unfortunately, he passed away at the age of 82 in Weimar on March 22, 1832. He was not only a writer and a literary figure but also a politician, painter, and naturalist. His other book, “Storm and Stress,” is a collection of letters and is considered a pioneer of his time. Goethe is widely regarded as one of the most important German literary figures. A movie was made about him called “Young Goethe in Love,” which has a rating of 6.7 on IMDb. It is known that he said, “More light!” with his last breath, and the German translation of this sentence is “mehr licht,” which has caused some confusion as some people think he said “mehr nicht,” which means “enough.”
As we can understand from his books, Goethe wrote about love, nature, and lovers. He analyzed and portrayed people, stating that
“The world is a hell for sensitive hearts.”
He wrote “The Sorrows of Young Werther” at the age of 24, which had a shocking effect and even led to suicides. However, as an adult, he did not like the book and even criticized it.
Interestingly, despite being a lover of nature, Goethe hated the sound of dogs barking.
Moreover, he is the author of another famous book called “Faust.” The main character is a person who talks with various entities in a room (spiritual characters, demons, etc.). It is a book that is open to analysis and enjoyable to read.
Not only with his novels but also with his poetry, Goethe made a significant impact and is considered the greatest poet of his century.
Furthermore, he was a great admirer of the Ottoman Empire. He had an interest in Turkish and Islamic culture and was particularly fond of Sufi understanding of Islam. He even wrote a poem to thank Ebussuud Effendi for saving Hafiz Shirazi’s divan from being burned by those who complained that it contained wine. The poem’s name is “Thanks to the German.”
With his beautiful emotions and words, Goethe has left us with some incredible books and poetry. We highly recommend that everyone read the works of such an esteemed author and say farewell to him with a love of literature.
“I have never given up the habit of turning any event that pleases, hurts, or interests me into an image or a poem and thus distancing myself from events,”
he said.